About Me

Casa de Phillips contains one Dr. of Industrial Organizational Psychology, one former special ed teacher now stay-at-home mom, one adorable preschool boy with such a zest for life he can barely sleep past 5am, and one spunky two year old girl whose birth we blogged live (that little fact will likely come back to haunt her in junior high). We all need a little bit of saving sometimes.

Saving Supper Carnival: October 16, 2008

Saving Summer Carnival

Feeding Our Family on a Budget

Friday, February 06, 2009

The Valentine Brownie

A new favorite question of Isaac's (because, really, there were not enough already) is, "Mommy, what do we DO on Valentine's Day?"

Ummm...perhaps Hallmark can answer that question for you, son, because they made up the holiday in the first place.

In searching for an answer I have attempted to explain to Isaac that Valentine's Day is the day to tell friends and family you love them. I have opted to leave out the part about extreme commercialism of the whole event (just got an email this week from a large toy manufacturer wanting me to purchase V-Day toy packets for my kids...that started at $59.00. Whatever.) or how some day in middle school this will become a horrible rite of passage as some kids get to be the recipient of singing telegrams and others get left with nothing.

As you can tell, I am not the biggest fan of Valentine's Day. However, I do enjoy a good holiday so I still manage to scrape up some festiveness around the 14th of February each year.

Today was MOPS for this month and as table leader I attempt to bring a small treat for the gals at my table.

Things are a bit hectic this week, so I needed something quick, cute, and festive.

Behold: The Valentine Brownie

All I did was make two batches of brownies and allowed them to cool completely. After they were cooled, I then cut them into heart and flower shapes using small cookie cutters. Spray the cookie cutter with a bit of non-stick spray and the process will be quick and painless.

After cutting out my shapes, I whipped out this icing. Like I said, I needed something quick and "Make Royal Icing" did not fit into the schedule this week. I drizzled some on the top of each shape, tossed on some leftover sprinkles from Christmas, and VIOLA!

I packaged the brownies in these candy boxes purchased at our local craft store. Although cute, I would not recommend such packaging because there were no directions on how to assemble the boxes.

Dear Reader, I need directions.

After an extensive Google search and an hour of frustration, I finally figured out how to get the boxes to fold together. They were not exactly pretty, but they held together.

I then fashioned a bit of festive ribbon around the boxes and my treat for February was complete!

***

This morning I thought the children looked especially sweet, so I wanted to take a quick photo or fifteen before we left. They opted to stand by the crepe myrtle that needs to be pruned and ran in circles when asked to stand close to their sibling.

I too cannot believe how cute those brownies are... and in those boxes w/ that ribbon! I also wanted to write to say I contacted the lady who designed your blog (I'm such a copier). Maybe we'll have a new cute blog soon.... Thanks for all the great ideas!